What, How to See Manassas Battlefield

The first thing that strikes a visitor to Henry Hill at Manassas National Battlefield Park is the spectacular view. On a clear day, the Blue Ridge Mountains are visible nearly 40 miles away. The second thing that strikes the visitor is the large number of cannon. Black-barreled rifled artillery of the Union batteries dot the western side of Henry Hill, and bluish-green Confederate bronze smoothbores line its eastern crest. While the two aspects are obvious, another is more subtle: whichever side controlled the hill would surely win the First Battle of Manassas. That, as we now know, was the Confederacy.